Until 1973, John J. Sirica was a U.S. district judge in the District of Columbia, little known to the world outside district politics. He was a Republican appointee to the bench during the Eisenhower administration. His career was only modestly distinguished, with a reputation as a "hanging judge" who parceled out maximum sentences to criminal offenders. But that was a relatively insignificant prelude to the role he would play as the man ultimately responsible for bringing down a U.S. president, Richard Nixon.
By the time the Senate hearings began that summer, probing into a June 17, 1972 burglary of Democratic National Headquarters during that year's presidential campaign, Judge Sirica's name was already synonymous with the biggest political scandal of the twentieth century: Watergate. The Watergate apartment and office complex overlooking the Potomac River was not simply the site of the break-in. Watergate became the term that served as the metaphor for every scandal that followed. From the minute the case landed on his desk, Sirica relentlessly pursued the truth about what he suspected was a cover-up that would be traced all the way back to the White House. During televised Senate hearings in the summer of 1973, John J. Sirica gained the prominence of a folk hero. Sirica encountered repeated criticism regarding the possibility that he would impose the maximum sentences on the Watergate burglars. In the end he took the defendants' cooperation in the further investigation, and their prison sentences were more lenient than anticipated. He was also recognized for his efforts when Time magazine named him, "Man of the Year" for 1973, as a person whose pursuit of truth and justice triumphed over many obstacles.
John Joseph Sirica was born on March 19, 1904, in Waterbury, CT, into a poor family, the son of an immigrant Italian father, Fred, a barber, and a second-generation Italian mother, Rose, who ran a grocery store. Along with his brother, Andrew, he moved with his family several times during his early years, living in various cities across the South, finally settling in Washington, D.C. when Sirica was 14. When he was 17 he enrolled in George Washington University Law School but dropped out when the course of study seemed impossibly difficult. Sirica decided to try boxing as a career and began to box at the local Y.M.C.A. His earnings as a boxing instructor at a gym eventually carried him through Georgetown University Law School where he successfully completed studies in 1926. He spent time in a small law firm practicing criminal law, and became a U.S. attorney during the Hoover administration with the help of a former boxing partner. From that time he was a devoted Republican, never forgetting the favor the party had done him. He left that post to go back into private practice for the next 15 years while becoming increasingly active in Republican Party politics.
Sirica's decision to release the secret Watergate grand jury report on President Nixon to the House Judiciary Committee was announced on March 18, 1974, almost exactly a year after one of the original defendants in the burglary, James McCord, informed Sirica by letter in March 1973, that defendants at the initial trial had committed perjury in an attempt to keep them from implicating higher-level government officials. That decision ultimately led to Nixon's resignation from office in August of 1974 when he was faced with impeachment, in addition to possible criminal charges. Sirica died on August 14, 1992, survived by his wife of 41 years, Lucille Camalier Sirica, and daughters Patricia Ann and Eileen Marie. A son, John, Jr. preceded him in death.
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